Baseball vs Softball

[ilyazhito]

I am both a baseball umpire and a softball umpire, and have noticed that some other users (bbman, BretMan) have experience umpiring both as well. I have also noticed that there are significant differences in mechanics between the two sports (softball umpires are less likely to call "Play" or point to the pitcher to signal "Play" than baseball umpires), and that some users in the softball forum have insisted that baseball not be discussed in relation to softball.

AFAIK, some baseball umpires with bad mechanics have borrowed their non-standard mechanics from softball (using "Dead Ball" on a stoppage of play, a big no-no for baseball umpires), and some softball umpires have inappropriately appropriated baseball mechanics (pointing on strikes), so some degree of crossover is inevitable (plate mechanics are similar in both sports, and the process of taking a play at a base is also basically identical).

Do baseball umpires have a similarly dismissive attitude towards softball and softball umpires as (some) softball umpires do towards baseball and baseball umpires?

Are there any baseball mechanics that are seen as unnecessary for a softball umpire, the way that brushing the rubber and bases and/or carrying the ball to the mound is for a baseball umpire?

[markrischard]

Yes. Referring to them as "rubber" and "mound".

[Rich]

Anyone who treats softball as baseball played on a small diamond should realize that they are two different sports. I work baseball and my daughter plays fastpitch.

The one mechanic that I find amusingly different is that fastpitch umpires signal EVERY CATCH of a fly ball, no matter how routine. As a baseball umpire, that strikes me as unnecessary or over the top.

[ilyazhito]

Of course, there is no mound, but there still is a rubber plate in the middle of the pitcher's circle. I'd still use the term "rubber" as an informal term to translate "pitching plate" to laymen, because it is still an accurate descriptor of the pitching surface.